Photo: Nyttend · Public domainBell Acres has higher household incomes than 97% of U.S. towns
31% of workers have no commute at all (Pennsylvania 16%). Poverty touches 5.0% of residents; Pennsylvania has 11.7%. The two grades for Bell Acres are A+ for jobs and income and C+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Bell Acres, in brief
Bell Acres is a place people come home to
There are 105 jobs based in Bell Acres, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Bell Acres has about 880 people in it, 39% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Home offices are common in Bell Acres
31% of Bell Acres workers work from home, against 16% across Pennsylvania. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 675 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Bell Acres gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Bell Acres is better than 96% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($165,987, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 79% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (1.8%) is left out: Bell Acres’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Bell Acres could be anywhere from A to A+.
Who leaves Bell Acres for work, and who comes in
On a workday 660 residents head out to work, 15 work right here, and 90 people come in from elsewhere.
About 880 people are in Bell Acres on a workday afternoon, 39% fewer than live here.
0.16 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Bell Acres’ commute takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bell Acres workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 538 commuters (the 31% who work from home are left out). Across Pennsylvania: 81% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
20% of working residents work in Pittsburgh
Where Bell Acres clocks in
20% of workers
6% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Goods, not services: 46% of the jobs in Bell Acres
105 jobs are based in Bell Acres.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bell Acres, 2014 → 2024: 108 → 105. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bell Acres’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Bell Acres commutes less than 13 miles
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Bell Acres: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bell Acres is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.6% across Pennsylvania, on an EPA index of 5.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 782 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.6% of Bell Acres households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Bell Acres’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Bell Acres ranks: 143rd of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 17% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Rose Valley PA | 1,017 | $247K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 141 | Fremont Hills MO | 1,098 | $171K | 3.9% | 1.9% | <1% | A+ |
| 142 | Chester NJ | 1,689 | $172K | 6.4% | 2.8% | 7% | A+ |
| 143 | Bell Acres PA | 1,454 | $166K | 5.0% | 1.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 144 | Rockland WI | 1,833 | $128K | 2.8% | 0.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 145 | Somis CA | 1,229 | $145K | 3.7% | 4.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Bell Acres, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Bell Acres and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bell Acres workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell Acres | – | A+ | C+ | 24 min | $165,987 |
| Economy | under 2% | A− | C− | 29 min | $95,313 |
| Leet Township | under 2% | A− | C− | 25 min | $93,083 |
| Sewickley Heights | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Edgeworth | under 2% | A+ | A | 25 min | $202,813 |
| Franklin Park | under 2% | A | C | 25 min | $176,875 |
| Ambridge Heights | under 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Harmony Township | under 2% | A− | B | 22 min | $70,926 |
Same-state neighbors only. Sewickley Heights: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Ambridge Heights: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bell Acres’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Bell Acres: questions
What is the median household income in Bell Acres?
$165,987 (±$21,701) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bell Acres?
5.0%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bell Acres?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 31% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bell Acres work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pittsburgh (20%, 15 mi), Cranberry Township (6%, 9 mi), Sewickley (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Bell Acres walkable?
Bell Acres is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bell Acres without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bell Acres, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bell Acres
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.